A winter sun sets behind leafless baobabs in Madagascar. These “upside-down trees” are associated with Africa, but while the entire continent has only one species, Madagascar is home to six species of baobabs, all of them unique to that great island. I’m excited to go back to Madagascar this September and October with my wife and partner Chris Eckstrom, and we want to recruit a local assistant based in Madagascar to help with photo and video production for portions of that period. We use Sony video cameras, Nikon DSLRs, and DJI drones. If any of you know of someone who is tech-savvy and interested in joining us, please write to info@lanting.com with a cover letter and credentials. @natgeocreative@thephotosociety#Madagascar#Baobab#naturephotography#nature

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Ferns have been uncurling their fiddleheads for many millions of years. This is one image from our LIFE exhibition currently on display at Cinemec Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Our LIFE project is a lyrical interpretation of the history of life on earth from the Big Bang to the present, expressed through photographs. A film about the making of LIFE is also screened at Cinemec until September 1. "Natuur is overal en begint bij huis." Nature is everywhere and it begins at home. If you are a photographer from the Netherlands or Belgium, I invite you to submit your best images of nature and its relevance for people for the WNF-Frans Lanting Award in photography. The deadline is September 1. Find out more about how you can submit your images at https://photoaward.wnf.nl/. @natgeocreative@thephotosociety@wnf@wnf.nl/photoaward #WNF#PhotoAward#Nature#NaturePhotography#creativity#photography

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"There is mystery behind that masked gray visage, and ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea.”― Peter Matthiessen, The Tree Where Man Was Born

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It may look like a vision of an alien planet, but it is a scene from planet Earth. Primitive bacteria stain the sides of a geyser with fantastic colors while hot water erupts from deep underground. Scientists believe that this is the kind of extreme environment where life may have begun on earth billions of years ago. This exquisite place is fragile, and it's located on private property not open to the public. I photographed it with special permission from the owners. Thank you for respecting their goal to protect it. Follow me @FransLanting to learn more about the history of life on earth. @natgeo@natgeotravel@natgeocreative@thephotosociety#amazing#nature#earth#beauty#picoftheday#colors

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Photo by @franslanting This is a small section of one of the most complex rock art sites in the American Southwest. Over a period of thousands of years people carved images and stories into the rocks delivering to us a bewildering mosaic of how they lived with nature. What you do not see in this image is the damage done in more recent times when people vandalized these messages from the past. This site is one of the many precious places administered by the US Federal Bureau of Land Management, which operates its protection programs on a shoe string budget. And now BLM's resources are being shifted from protection to extraction to enable oil and gas deposits to get monetized. If you care about the American legacy of public lands for future generations, please speak up and become part of the conversation. Follow me @franslanting for more coverage of precious places. @natgeo@natgeotravel@thephotosociety@natgeocreative#MonumentsForAll#beauty#nature#naturelovers#wilderness#America#Conservation

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The Waterpocket Fold is a major geologic feature that defines Capitol Reef National Park. It’s a buckle in the earth’s surface where rocks have been pushed up and erosion has cut through the layers. From the air it looks like a giant multicolored gash with crazy zig zag patterns. On the ground you can experience it in the course of a spectacular drive along Route 24. But if you want to find out what it’s named for, you have to get out and hike into the backcountry where shaded rocky hollows can contain precious freshwater well into the dry season. Follow me @FransLanting to see more special places from the Southwest. @natgeotravel@thephotosociety@natgeocreative#America#explore#naturelovers#beauty#wild

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Beyond the National Parks and National Monuments we’re all familiar with, there are scores of other public lands in the USA that are administered by the Department of the Interior. The Bureau of Land Management is charged with looking after many millions of acres of wilderness areas, but it barely has the resources to do so. And that is before the cutbacks that are now being contemplated in Washington, D.C. Here’s one amazing place I discovered while doing an aerial survey of the Colorado Plateau on assignment for @NatGeo. It’s called the San Rafael Swell and it’s located in central Utah. It’s full of shale rock and that means there may be oil and gas deposits underneath the surface. Imagine what this landscape would like with access roads for mineral extraction. Become part of the conversation if you care and check some of the links below and follow me @FransLanting for more coverage of these special places.@WildernessSociety@thephotosociety@leonardodicaprio#MonumentsForAll#beauty#naturelovers#naturephotography#wilderness#America#Conservation

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Since we started posting images and stories on Instagram a year ago, it has been utterly gratifying to Chris Eckstrom and me to receive your responses. It has been heartwarming to learn how many of you share our passion for celebrating the natural world and our concern about keeping our living planet healthy for nature and for ourselves. Yesterday we reached a milestone with our Instagram endeavors when we reached half a million followers. We would like to say thanks to all of you around the world and hope you will stay with us as we continue to explore the world and share our experiences and insights with you.

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Photo by @FransLanting Magic light is what I look for all the time to add an exclamation mark to my images. It can occur at dawn or dusk, when light gives way to shadows or vice versa, but in slot canyons it happens in the middle of the day. Here’s another image from one of those temples of nature. Shafts of light suffused with dust can penetrate deep into a narrow canyon whose sandstone walls are shaped by water over time. Sunlight from high above reflects back and forth between the walls and creates an ethereal luminosity deep down below like a cathedral illuminated through stained glass windows. Follow me @FransLanting for more images of these special places.